Uber CEO Open To Tesla Collaboration Amid Robotaxi Race Because 'Competing With Elon Musk Is No Easy Matter'

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said his firm is open to cooperating with Elon Musk's Tesla in the driverless car market. At the same time, Khosrowshahi took a slightly more combative tone with Amazon.

Speaking to the Financial Times in October, Khosrowshahi said that competing with Musk, the world's richest man, was 'no easy matter' and that 'we really want to partner with the autonomous industry'.

Uber's Vision for Partnering with Tesla

Uber previously attempted to develop its own driverless cars; however, the project was abandoned in 2020. Since then, Uber has partnered with independent driverless car makers Waymo and Cruise in the US and Wayve in Great Britain.

Tesla is currently developing its own Cybercab or Robotaxi. Musk rode a prototype of the vehicle around a Warner Bros. studio in California at an unveiling event in October. During the event, Musk said that production of the Robotaxi is estimated to begin before 2027.

In his interview with the FT, Khosrowshahi commented, 'Our hope is that, to the extent that Elon and Tesla build some great technology, when it's safe and ready to use, they plug it into the Uber network and we can all win together.'

'We'd love to have it on the platform, but if not, I don't think this is going to be a winner-take-all marketplace. We believe in the spirit of partnership; we'll see what Tesla does.'

Empowering Local Merchants to Compete with Amazon

Khosrowshahi took a slightly more combative tone with Amazon. While downplaying any ideas of Uber challenging Amazon directly, Khosrowshahi did indicate he wanted Uber to help 'local merchants' challenge Amazon's dominance.

He said, 'We don't want to take on Amazon... We want to empower the local merchant to be more competitive with Amazon. One of the disadvantages that local merchants have is they can't build the fulfilment infrastructure that Amazon has built. Well, we have couriers on the ground in your city and we can allow that local merchant, to some extent, out-Amazon Amazon. Amazon can get you something the next day; your local merchant can get you something in the next hour or two.'

'It's not us taking on Amazon, but it is empowering small local enterprises to be more competitive with Amazon.'

Record Growth and Future Plans

At the end of October, Khosrowshahi told CNBC that the company was 'incredibly optimistic' following what he characterised as record third-quarter results.

Trip volume growth was attributed by Khosrowshahi to new products at lower prices in international markets, such as two-wheelers in Latin America and three-wheeler 'Tuk-Tuks' in India.

When asked by CNBC about rumours of a planned takeover of Expedia, Khosrowshahi would neither confirm nor deny them, but appeared to pour cold water on the idea, saying, 'For us right now the bar for any acquisition has never been higher... to the extent that we go on and do M&A it will tend to be, at this point, smaller deals.'